[I realized after writing this you might get worried about Scout - don’t worry! Skip to the end if you want an update on him. Also, my other computer is busted which is temporarily limiting my access to pictures of Scout, sorry. Finally, this is a very long post about a dog so unless you’re particularly interested you might consider skipping it.]
Back in 2000, B and I went out to the Fauquier County animal shelter to look at dogs. Actually, we went to look at puppies. The Fairfax County shelter didn’t have puppies very often and when they did they got adopted quickly - but they suggested we check out Fauquier County. The shelters out in the country are a little more farm like but the facility was nice and clean.
Since we were there we decided to walk up and down the runs and look at the adult dogs they had. In fact, our plan was to head out and see what kind of puppy selection they had. We weren’t ready to get a puppy, specifically planned on not getting a puppy that day, and we didn’t get a puppy.
However, as we walked up and down the rows looking at the dogs there was one dog that B noticed. Most of the dogs would start barking once they knew people were walking around. Many would run and jump around as you passed them. They were excited! Except this one dog. Every time we walked by this dog he was lying on the ground, with he head on his paws, and he would wag his tail. He didn’t get up, he didn’t even raise his head, just wagged his tail each time we walked by.
He wasn’t much of a dog. Skinny. Brownish red. Mutt. Fairly shy. But B was interested in him so we asked if we could take him out to the yard to play with him. The yard was just a big fenced in gravel area. Out there he seemed more interested in the other dogs and looking out across the fields - he didn’t seem to pay much attention to people. I started to wonder if he had played us - knowing that if he did it right he could get an extra run in the yard. But he seemed very sweet.
I don’t remember exactly how it worked but somehow B convinced me we should get him. “But our plan was to NOT get a dog today,” I protested. B reminded me that the plan was to not get a PUPPY. A technicality I say.
So, we adopted Scout. We couldn’t take him home that day because he had to get fixed first. He was a year or two old, nobody knew for sure. He had been at the shelter for a few weeks - long enough that nobody seemed to know for sure where he came from. I think someone said an area farmer got tired of the stray dogs on his property so he rounded them up and brought them in - but it didn’t really make a lot of sense.
A few days later we drove out to the Centerville Animal Hospital to pick him up after he got fixed. Right off the bat we started to get worried. On our way out he walked right into the closed glass door. In the parking lot he started barking at the cars whizzing by on the nearby street. As soon as we had him in our car a waterfall of drool started pouring out of his mouth.
When we got home it wasn’t much better. He didn’t seem to understand how to go up the stairs and he freaked out a bit when he saw himself in the mirror. Fortunately, he didn’t seem to pay much attention to our four cats.
We weren’t sure what to think but we concluded that he was just a farm dog that didn’t understand the ways of the “city”. Later this was confirmed when he walked off the dock a my mom’s house in Annapolis, not realizing the water could be too deep to stand in. Or the time B took him to the beach and he made himself sick drinking water from the ocean.
It didn’t take long for us to fall in love with Scout. He figured out the stairs and glass doors pretty quickly. He quit barking at cars. He still drools in the car, but not as much. If you’ve ever met Scout you know he’s a chill dog. He still has a touch of nervousness around people but I don’t think he’d hurt a fly. When Coral was a baby he basically ignored her and kept away. Now he puts up with her pulling on him, pushing him, yelling at him, and generally bossing him around. Actually, he doesn’t just put up with it - he seems to enjoy it. He follows her around in the yard.
He’s a terrible guard dog. I can’t remember the last time he barked at all and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him bark at a person. At the dog park he finds the biggest dog there to play with. He’s not at all aggressive with other dogs but he doesn’t put up with anything so the yippy dogs leave him alone.
He’s not perfect. He generally won’t run off… unless he sees another dog he wants to say hi to. He’s not great on hikes because he’ll run off the second he smells a deer (although he apparently doesn’t have great eyesight because seeing one doesn’t do anything for him). He pulls on his leash, especially in the evening, and generally has to poop about 4 times on a 10 minute walk. He’s annoying around the house because he clacks up the stairs after you, even if you’re going to come right back down.
But really, he’s almost perfect. And he’s the sweetest dog you’ll ever meet. I’m here with him at the Veterinary Internal Medicine Practice of Northern Virginia in Manassas where they’re checking him out. His regular vet and the dog cardiologist think he has some kind of growth on his liver. We’re hoping it’s something small that grows very slowly (or doesn’t grow at all) but we don’t know yet.
As the vet was leading him to the back for the ultrasound he was holding his leash in his mouth the way he likes (gives him more control I think), a little spring in his step, happy to be getting the attention. It just got me thinking about what a good dog he is.
Update: The vet says that Scout definitely has a tumor growing in his liver. It’s not a solid mass and lacks a dedicated blood supply. It is only in one part of one lobe of his liver and hasn’t spread anywhere else. She wasn’t able to grab a quick biopsy due to the location. After looking at the blood work it seems to be a slow growing tumor - potentially very slow growing. She laid out three options:
1. Do nothing now and in about a month or so take more measurements to see if we can tell how fast it is growing.
2. Do a semi-invasive biopsy so they can look at the tumor cells directly and get a better sense for what it is.
3. Remove the lobe of his liver. She feels that based on what she sees now this would basically “cure” him.
The second option is costly, invasive, and could still not actually give us more info (the nature of the tumor means that when they take some snips of his liver they might get only normal liver tissue and not any bits of the tumor) - so we’re not really considering that.
The third option is costly, and would be major surgery, but the vet feels like the odds of success are very high. We would just go for this option except that based on his blood work over the years it seems like this tumor might have been growing for a couple of years already. If that’s the pace it’s going to continue at then he’d be a pretty dang old dog before this tumor could start causing him any problems.
So we’re still deciding on what to do. This seems to be almost the best possible situation (short of the previous vets having been totally wrong about there being anything in his liver in the first place) so that is certainly good. In fact, the internal medicine vet felt pretty strongly that Scout doesn’t have Cushings Syndrome (something our regular vet worried about), which is very good. A very slow growing tumor is apparently actually better than Cushings Syndrome.
We’ll keep you posted on Scout but as of right now he’s doing quite well (if only he would quit eating the cat food….).
Coral has a fish tank. In her tank she has a bunch of inbred guppies all descendant from the same 3-4 original fish. She also has a now fairly large pleco. The other resident of her tank is a loach. I guess it’s a weather loach - although it’s of the golden variety. His name is Squirmy.
